A Byword of the Peoples

He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit. My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow.
Job 17:6-7
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A Byword of the Peoples
Job has become an object of scorn to the people.  His condition is revolting: painful festering sores over his entire body (7:5), nightmares (7:14), scabs which peel and become black (30:28, 30), disfigurement and a revolting appearance (2:12; 19:19), bad breath (19:17), excessive thinness (17:7; 19:20), fever (30:30) and pain day and night (30:17).  Job personifies in the eyes of the people God’s judgement for the sins one commits. Whether we admit it or not, the Old Adam in us likes to have people like Job to scorn.  We can point at them and tell ourselves, at least we are not as bad as him.  Yet the reality is that we are.  We are just as sinful and fallen as Job was.  And if our sins actually manifested themselves physically as the people who saw Job assumed, then we would be an even more pitiful sight.  Yet thankfully for us that is not the case.  In face the distortions and wretchedness of our sins were place on another. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:4–5). And in the twisted and distorted picture of the cross we see our salvation.  We see reconciliation and forgiveness.  And though, like Job, we too may be a byword of the peoples of this world, we nonetheless, are children of God.  Precious in His sight, because of the darkness of Good Friday and the light of Easter morn!